- Tell el Fakhariya
Tell el Fakhariya, or Tell el Fecheriyeh with variants, is an ancient site in the
Khabur River basin in theAl Hasakah Governorate of northernSyria . It is the alleged site of Washukanni, the capital ofMitanni .In the area exist several mounds called:
* Tell el Fakhariya
* Ras el 'Ayn
* Tell Halaf - see the separateTell Halaf article about the Neolithic site and the Halafian culture, and theAramean and Neo-Assyria n city ofGuzana .The identification of Tell el Fakhariya with Washukanni
The
Neo-Assyrian city of Sikan is identified with the Hurrian capital of Mitanni, Washukanni. The name "Sikan" is believed to be an Assyrianized version of itsHurrian , or Indo-Aryan original, becoming "(Wa-)Sikan(-ni)". The site has not been fully excavated and no discoveries from the expected Hurrian occupation of the site have yet been found.Washukanni
Washukanni, or "Waššukanni" (also spelled Washshukanni, Wassuganni, Vasukhani, or variants) was the capital of the
Hurrian kingdom ofMitanni from c.1500 BC. The name is similar to theSanskrit phrase "Vasu-khani", "a mine of wealth," [However, compare [Luwian "vasu-", "good".] In modern Kurdish "w/bashkani" means "the good spring (of water).Washukanni flourished as a capital city for two centuries. The city is known to have been sacked by the
Hittites underSuppiluliumas I (ruled ca. 1358 - 1323 BC). whose treaty inscription [ [http://www.geocities.com/farfarer2001/hittite_letters/suppiluliuma_shattiwaza_treaty.htm Suppilulium-Shattiwaza treaty exerpts] ] relates that he installed a Hurrian vassal king,Shattiwaza . The city was sacked again by theAssyria n kingAdad-nirari I around 1290, but very little else is known of its history.Sikan
The ancient Neo-Assyrian city of Sikan is on the southern edge of the mound at Ras el 'Ayn. Its location is near the modern-day Tell el Fakhariya, where a famous Neo-Assyrian statue of Adad-it'i/Hadd-yith'i, the king of
Guzana and Sikan was discovered in the 1970s, with abilingual inscription in the Assyrian dialect of Akkadian andAramaic , the earliest Aramaic inscription. [A. R. Millard and P. Bordreuil, "A Statue from Syria with Assyrian and Aramaic Inscriptions" "The Biblical Archaeologist" 45.3 (Summer 1982:135-1410, and Abu Asaf, Pierre Bordreuil and Alan R. Millard, "La statue de Tell Fekherye et son inscription bilingue assyro-arameenne" (Paris) 1982.] The statue was inscribed as a votive object toHadad , whose name the donor bore.References
* [http://www.fecheriye.de/ "The Official Website of the new dig at Tell Fecheriye"] . Retrieved June 17, 2006.
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